


Perceptive

by snapchattingnct



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: College AU, M/M, minor mafia au, norenmin, side markhyuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 13:14:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21732733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snapchattingnct/pseuds/snapchattingnct
Summary: Nothing is ever what it seems.Especially not when it concerns two cute amateur hackers and a programming intern.(In which Jeno and Jaemin finds it hard not to fall in love with Renjun, even with all their secrets.)
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Comments: 5
Kudos: 233
Collections: ’00 FIC FEST: ROUND ONE





	Perceptive

**Author's Note:**

> For 00FF Prompt (#0029).
> 
> To the prompter, I hope that this is what you had imagined when you sent in this prompt. And I hope I did your prompt justice with what I've written! 
> 
> \--
> 
> It took me an extremely long time before I really got into this story and fell in love with what I managed to pull together. All this wouldn't have been possible without the help of my fellow 00ffies and my beta. 
> 
> Thank you to my fellow 00ffies for crying over terrible drafts, writer's block, and giving me motivation to finish this even at the crack of dawn. 
> 
> Thank you my beta. Oh my beta, I am so sorry at the amount of editing that you had to do in order to make this story readable. You are so amazing! So blessed to have you stick through with me until the end.

“It’s your turn to do the dishes, you know that, right?” Jaemin told the boy beside him as he continued to type away on his laptop, the screen’s blue lights illuminating his face. 

“Oh, come on,” Jeno whined. Huffing loudly, he added, “I was already on dish duty last night, Nana.”

“No, you weren’t. I was. And I was for the past couple of nights because you were complaining about your huge anatomy exam today. Now that it’s over, it’s your turn to do the dishes.” 

Sighing heavily, Jeno pushed his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose, mumbling, “Fine… I’ll do it.”

“I wasn’t really going to give you a choice, Jeno,” Jaemin said, laughing. He shoved Jeno’s shoulders gently, before focusing back on the task at hand. “Okay, now that that’s settled, hurry and finish up so that we can get out of here. I’m tired.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m tired, too. That exam today took my soul,” Jeno said, fingers flying across the keyboard as he added a few more lines to the code before finishing. “Okay, done. Let’s get out of here.”

Sparing a glance at his watch, Jaemin nodded. “Just in time. We have exactly two minutes to get out of here before someone finds us. Not a second more.”

Without another word, the two boys began to pack up all of their equipment as fast as they could, pulling out all of the necessary cords and flash drives from the main computers and stuffing them into their backpacks. Then, putting everything back into its place, the two boys dashed out the door without looking back. 

Pointing to the left, Jaemin said, “I think Chenle told us to take the side exit to get out. There are less guards over there during this time, plus they’re on their rounds right now. So, we should be able to get out unnoticed and without a struggle.”

“Okay, let’s go.” He pushed Jaemin in front of him, urging him to go first. 

Sticking close to the perimeter of the halls, the two boys tried to melt into the shadows of the night as best as they could with their all-black attire. Moving stealthily, they made it to the end of the hallway with ease, but just as they turned the corner, they were unexpectedly confronted with the guards that they were promised would be somewhere else. Quickly retracting back, Jaemin pushed himself and Jeno flat against the wall. 

“What the actual fuck? Chenle said that no one was supposed to be here,” he whispered frantically.

Shrugging his shoulders, Jeno replied, “Maybe they changed their rotation?” Peeking around the corner as subtly as he could, he tried to see how many guards were stationed at their supposed exit. Two at the door, one to the left and then two more to the right. Five in total. Sighing, he whispered, “Chenle didn’t say that there would be five guards per rotation, either. That would’ve been great information to know. I would’ve brought more than a handgun with me.”

“Same here. Both he and Mark said that it was a low risk job. That’s the only reason why I agreed to do it on a school night. Otherwise I would’ve handed it off to one of the other boys,” Jaemin said before turning to take another peek around the corner. As he did, he drew in a sharp breath. Two of the guards had noticed their presence and were heading their way. Shoving Jeno the other way, he bit out, “Oh crap. Go, go!”

Following Jeno at his heels, the two of them dashed down the corridor just as the guards began to fully understand that there were intruders in the building. Loud shouts and commands bounced off of the tile floors and echoed all around them. 

Narrowly missing the corner, Jaemin asked, “What’s the closest exit besides the side one that Chenle mentioned?”

“I think he mentioned that there’s a camera room in the middle of the building that has a staircase down to the basement. We can exit out the back doors. I don’t think there’s any guards down there at this time of day, since there’s nothing down there to guard.”

“How far is it from here?” Jaemin’s breathing became labored as he tried to match Jeno’s sprinting pace. And goodness, the boy could run. Maybe he should start joining Jeno at his daily gym workouts.

“It shouldn’t be too far, it’s right down this hall and then the next—” 

Jeno wasn’t able to finish his sentence as a hard body collided with his, knocking him completely off of his feet and into the wall. Groaning, he tried to get up, only to be thrown back against the wall again. 

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me…” Jaemin sighed as he moved to pull his handgun from its holster at the side of his hips, only to be thrown a narrow-eyed look from Jeno. 

He watched in confusion as Jeno tried to throw the guard off of himself. In between all of the struggling, Jeno motioned for him to go on. “Go, I’ll catch up to you.”

“What? Are you freaking crazy? I’m not leaving you.”

“Just go. I’ll be right at your heels,” he shouted, slugging the guard across the face with his elbow. “I just need to deal with him real quick.”

Jaemin watched with wide eyes as the guard shouted out, “You two aren’t going anywhere!” He raised his fist, and it made its way down towards Jeno’s face. 

Right at the last moment, Jeno blocked the hit and summoned monstrous strength to throw the guard off of himself. Hastily getting to his feet, he grabbed ahold of Jaemin’s hand. “I told you I’d be fine. You should’ve listened. Come on, his buddies are coming.” 

True to his words, not even a second later, the sound of thundering footsteps reached his ears along with a string of profanities. Not thinking much of it, Jaemin allowed Jeno to pull him away towards their desired destination. 

. 

By the time they had turned in their assignments and the codes to Donghyuck, it was already the early hours of the morning, and the moment that the two of them made it home, they were out like a light. After missions like that, Jaemin liked to catch up on as much sleep as he could, sometimes even skipping class to do just that. So, when he felt an arm shaking him awake a few hours later, Jaemin was not happy. He was not happy at all. 

“Jaemin, wake up. I’m hungry.”

Completely ignoring the person who was trying to stir him from his beauty sleep, Jaemin stayed still and hoped Jeno would just leave him alone if he didn’t get a response back. When he didn’t hear anything else, Jaemin thought that he had managed to fool him into thinking that he was still asleep. But that thought was thrown right out the window when he felt Jeno’s heavy body laying on top of him, effectively knocking the air out of his lungs. 

Jeno clung to him, whining even louder. “Jaemin, I’m hungry. Feed me.”

Jaemin groaned and tried his hardest to push Jeno’s body off of himself, but it was pointless; it only made him cling even tighter. With a sigh, Jaemin peeked out from under his comforter, hair in complete disarray. “What do you want?”

With a cheeky smile, Jeno said, “I knew you would come around.” 

“Well, you’re lucky you’re cute.”

“You love me regardless, Nana,” Jeno replied, tone full of amusement. 

Finally rising up from his bed, with Jeno still wrapped around him like a koala, Jaemin took a glance at the time. With a sigh, he ran a tired hand through his hair. “Alright, pick something quick and easy because we have to report our mission to Mark in like two hours.”

“Strawberry pancakes, please,” Jeno said before releasing Jaemin from his hold and planting a kiss on top of his bedhead. “Thanks!” 

Feeling his heart beat a little bit faster as a result of the kiss, Jaemin mumbled under his breath, “I said something easy…”

“You and I both know that you can whip up a set of pancakes in under ten minutes, Nana,” Jeno retorted as he began making his way out of the room and into the kitchen. 

“Yeah, yeah.” 

.

They weren’t surprised to find that Mark wasn’t even awake when they arrived to his flat. 

As they made themselves comfortable on Mark’s huge leather sectional in the living room, Jeno couldn’t help but groan loudly as he checked the time. “Donghyuck is so annoying. He literally nags us to be on time, and to not be a  _ second _ late, but it’s pointless because Mark doesn’t even wake up in time for these meetings in the first place.”

“You know Mark isn’t a morning person, Jeno.” Jaemin laughed as he rested a comforting hand on Jeno’s leg. “And Donghyuck just likes to be an ass like that because he can.” 

“You’re right,” Jeno agreed.

“Of course I’m right. When am I not?”

“Okay, don’t get too full of yourself, now. Overconfidence is not an attractive feature.”

“Well, it’s attractive on me.” Jaemin teased him back, a sly smile on his lips. 

As Jeno was about to retort back with a witty reply of his own, a voice called out to them, “Can you guys take your overly disgusting flirting elsewhere?” 

“We’re not flirting,” Jeno argued. 

Donghyuck rolled his eyes. “Sure, you aren’t.”

Switching the topic at hand, Jeno asked, “Is Mark awake yet? We still have a lecture to get to, you know?”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. You’re not the only one,” Donghyuck grumbled. Then, pointing to the bedroom that he had just come from, he said, “You two can just head in there. He’s somewhat awake.”

“Somewhat?” Jeno shouted, eyes bulging. Sharing an incredulous look with Jaemin, he immediately got to his feet, making quick strides to Mark’s bedroom. Slamming the door open and effectively jostling the boy awake, he grumbled, “Mark, dude, get up man. You said you have a mission to brief us on. Me and Jaemin can’t wait around all day for you.” 

Just as he intended, Mark was finally rising from his bed, his hair pointing messily in every direction. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Mark gave Jeno and Jaemin a lopsided smile, waving hello to them. “Oh, what’s up, guys?”

“Seriously?” Jeno sighed, shaking his head.

“Oh, yeah.” Mark laughed, ruffling his hair, making it even messier than it already was. Finally getting to his feet, he called for Donghyuck to give him the mission file, and then handed it over to the two boys.

As Jeno flipped through it, Jaemin rested his chin on his shoulder to look at it alongside him.

“The mission you two just completed was just the beginning of Taeyong’s scheme to take down the Kings,” Mark began, his hand coming up to rub his eyes. “We needed you two to hack into Seoul’s Central Intelligence to get classified information on the special units in Busan. Their main department in Seoul has the blueprints for all their side branches.”

“Your next mission is to hack into the internal systems of the building you’re holding the blueprints to. Same guidelines apply here as they did to the first one. In and out, get the information on the Kings that Taeyong wants. Clear all the camera footage, don’t leave a single trace that you were there.” 

Jaemin nodded as he took one of the blueprints from Jeno’s hands. “Sounds easy enough.”

“Ideally, it should be. But just in case there’s any complications, Chenle and Jisung will be on call for backup. Donghyuck too.” Mark leaned back against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, “It might be a little more difficult this time around though, now that [name] are on the lookout for similar suspicious activity that would help them figure out who hacked into their system. So be careful.” 

“Got it, Boss,” Jeno said with a wink, closing the mission file. 

. 

Jeno threw a glare in Jaemin’s direction. “I told you we didn’t have time to stop for coffee. We’re going to be late for class!” 

“We’re not even that late. You just like to be extra early, Jeno,” Jaemin called out to him, walking at a brisk pace and sipping his warm coffee without a care in the world. 

“If we’re late and we miss the group project introduction today, you owe me dinner for the next week.” 

“And if we’re not,” Jaemin began, a smile on his lips. “You owe me a coffee every morning before class for the next week.”

“Deal.” 

After sealing the deal, Jaemin finally picked up his pace. In seconds, he closed the distance between him and Jeno, almost sprinting as he passed him. His sudden change in pace had Jeno taken aback for a moment before he just shook his head. 

Calling out after Jaemin, he said, “Not late my ass. Says the guy who’s practically sprinting to said class.” 

.

Renjun took a glance at his watch as he set up his stuff for the lecture. He scanned the lecture hall and saw that most of the people in the class were already settled in with their group mates for the semester programming project. Everyone was huddling close and exchanging numbers for the project, buzzing with excitement. 

Everyone but him. 

A frown settled onto his face as he took another glance at his watch. There was only a minute left before the start of the lecture and his two assigned group mates were nowhere to be found. Renjun felt his annoyance spike with each passing second. If his partners had really bailed on him then that means that he’d be stuck with doing the entire project by himself. 

Glancing at the back doors of the lecture hall, Renjun mumbled under his breath, “These motherfuckers better come through that door in the next ten seconds or else I’m out for their blood.” 

Just as he finished his sentence, he spotted two figures stumble into the hall and head down the stairs to the empty seats beside him. Renjun watched as they settled into their seats, completely out of breath. 

One of them leaned over his desk, his glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose, and apologized. “Sorry we’re late. I told him,” the boy jabbed a finger at the other boy sitting in between them, “that we wouldn’t have time for a coffee stop but he still had to get some anyways.”

“We had plenty of time,” said boy retorted. “We still made it to class before it started.” 

“Barely!”

Renjun watched with amusement as the two boys began to squabble, arguing about the coffee and class. There wasn’t any heat in their words, just playful jabs at each other. They were cute, he thought. 

Thinking it was about time to introduce himself properly, he cut into their argument. “You’re fine. Honestly though, I would’ve had to hunt you two down and kill you if you had really bailed. I’m Renjun by the way.”

The boy with the glasses nodded, smiling brightly, his eyes turning into little moon-shaped crescents. “It’s okay. We would’ve done the same. I’m Jeno.” 

“And I’m Jaemin. It’s nice to meet you.” The other boy, who was sipping from his coffee, greeted him. Sending a sweet smile to Renjun, Jaemin handed him his phone, saying, “Here. Enter your number so we can figure out when and where to meet for the project and all that fun stuff.”

“Wow, asking for my number already? Bold of you,” Renjun jokeed as he typed it in. 

“What can I say,” Jaemin shrugged, “I’m a natural.”

“Yeah, a natural flirt.” Jeno scoffed. He pushed Jaemin lightly on the shoulder, before leaning over and mouthing to Renjun, “Don’t mind him. He’s a Leo and you know how they are.”

Renjun simply laughs. 

.

The agency was a mess when Renjun arrived into work later that day. Everyone was running around as if the world was ending. People that he didn’t even know still worked there were all present today. It was loud and chaotic; people were shouting at each other from one side of the room to the other. 

Renjun adjusted his tie nervously, mentally preparing himself for the worst. The agency hadn’t had this much activity since the last time they’d had an incident. From what he’d heard, that was more than ten years ago. 

Barely able to dodge all the workers and interns running around him, he spotted Sicheng passing by. Pulling him aside, Renjun asked, “Hey, what’s going on?”

Sicheng shrugged, “I’m not entirely sure, either. I came in not too long ago, after Kun sent a mass text out to everyone. But from what I’ve heard, the headquarters was hacked into last night. Important and classified information was stolen.”

Renjun gasped, his eyes widening. He couldn’t believe what Sicheng had just told him. The agency was  _ hacked? _ That was impossible. Their firewalls were top notch, they were created by the best of the best in the country. No one should’ve been able to break through them. He would know, because one of the first assignments he had when he landed the interning job was to try to find a way to crack into the system. It took him more than a few months before he was able to complete that mission. 

Having a security breach at the agency was completely unheard of. They had staff rotating all around the clock to monitor everything that happened in this place. There was no way someone could’ve gotten past them and weaved themselves deep into the system to take  _ anything _ . 

Still not believing what he had just heard, Renjun stammered out, “Did they get any security footage? Any leads?”

Sicheng shook his head, his face grim. “No. Not a trace. Whoever hacked the system is very skilled. They completely bypassed all the firewalls and security. They even cracked the… code.”

“ _ What? _ That code is literally _ impossible _ to crack. Trust me, I would know. I’m still trying to crack it. Kun gave it to me as my next assignment.”

“Well, our lovely hacker cracked it first.”

“That’s fucking crazy,” Renjun breathed out. 

Renjun stood there watching all the chaos unfold in front of him. People were frantically trying to figure out what their next steps were. The heads of the departments were all huddled together discussing a plan of action while security filtered in and out of the room. 

Renjun turned around when he heard someone shout his name. Seeing that it was Kun who had called for him, Renjun began to make his way over to him. “I heard about what happened.”

Kun nodded. “That’s good. I don’t have to waste time briefing you on the basics then.” He handed Renjun a set of keys, “Here’s the keys to the camera room. See if you can recover any of the lost security footage or if you can find anything from that night that can help us. I’ve already had the internal team do a sweep so the chances are slim that you’ll find anything, but I want you to look at it too, just in case they missed something.”

Grasping the keys tightly in his hands, Renjun gave Kun a firm nod. “I’ll take a look.”

  
  


.

There were a few workers occupying the camera room when he arrived, but it was mostly just the guards. He showed them his badge and entered the room wordlessly. 

Renjun wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but he definitely wasn’t expecting the crime scene to be so spotless. He had only been in the camera room a handful of times, but from what he recalled, the room looked exactly the same. Not a single thing was out of place. There wasn’t any sign of breaking and entering, either. 

The hacker was good. Very good. 

If the rumors were true, the hacker came in, broke through the firewall, took all the core hard drive’s information, and swept all the cameras clean in a matter of minutes. Ten minutes max, he heard. They did it with ridiculous accuracy and stealth. 

Renjun made himself comfortable in one of the chairs in front of the main monitor. Giving a polite nod to the other intern that was already working on the case, he cracked his knuckles before getting to work. 

He ran through the basics. He looked at the cameras’ playbacks, their history, the internal memory chip, and the backup external hard drive. But just as he expected, they were all wiped clean and substituted with a looped video of the floors. 

Blowing out a low whistle, he said, “Damn. Even the looped videos of the floors are clean.”

“It’s insane how smooth it is. It looks identical to the camera footage from before the hacking. And there’s not a single skip in the videos, either.” 

“Have you looked at the external camera system?” Renjun asked the intern.

“Yeah, we have. The footage is exactly the same, though. Nothing but looped videos. No real time recordings.”

“How about the guards’ personal uniform cameras?”

“They’re wiped clean, too.”

“Those too?” Renjun exclaimed. “Aren’t those handled by an entirely separate security system? The hacker got to them, too?”

“Seems like it,” the intern shrugged. Drumming his fingers mindlessly on the table, he added, “Wouldn’t be surprised that they managed to get pass their firewalls, too. I mean they already got past us, what  _ can’t _ they get past?”

Renjun nodded, humming in agreement at the intern’s words. Thinking hard about what other leads he could find, he asked, “How about the security guards themselves?”

“None of them saw the hackers clearly enough for a suspect sketch. When they  _ did _ see them, it was too late. But you can ask them if you want. The ones that were on shift for that night are the ones standing right outside the door.” The intern pointed to the guards holding their position at the door. 

“Nah, that’s okay. Highly doubt they’ll be able to give me anything helpful,” Renjun muttered. He spun back around in his chair and put his attention back on reviewing the camera feed in front of him. “Time to watch more looped footage then, I guess.” 

.

  
  
  


Renjun, Jaemin and Jeno all decided to meet up at the coffee shop on campus to discuss the rest of the project before they actually start coding. 

Renjun watched the way Jeno seemed to move along with Jaemin’s every move. If Jaemin moved two steps to the left, Jeno was right there at his heels, moving two steps to the left along with him. He watched the way they fought over who was paying for who at the counter, their fingers and hands finding excuses so they could touch each other as they fought. 

Renjun didn’t miss the way Jeno’s entire face would light up at something that Jaemin whispered to him as they waited for their order. And he surely didn’t miss the way that Jeno’s eyes would drop to Jaemin’s pouty lips in between each one of his words. 

Jeno was head over heels for him, and he couldn’t blame him, because Jaemin was a catch. 

Just as Jeno was head over heels for Jaemin, Jaemin was equally smitten with Jeno. 

Renjun took notice of the way Jaemin would always lean into Jeno’s lingering touches or how he would sneak glances at Jeno when he thought the older boy wasn’t looking. Jaemin was trying very hard to be subtle. And he might have been subtle in Jeno’s eyes but to everyone else, it was anything but subtle. The love that they had for each other was so blatantly obvious that it hurts to watch. 

Renjun decided that it was time for him to voice his opinion on the two “best friends”. He wasn’t blind to the obvious attraction between the two boys. He had noticed it on the first day they all met. Even though he hadn’t known them for more than a couple of weeks, he felt like it was his responsibility to address it.

So when they finally stopped giving lovey-dovey eyes to each other and made their way back to the table with their orders, Renjun blurted out unabashedly, “You two are literally  _ glued  _ together at the hip. So please tell me—why aren’t you two a thing yet?” 

Jeno promptly choked on his own spit, his face flushed red as Jaemin coughed awkwardly at the sudden question. 

Words barely above a whisper, Jaemin said, “Can you not be so loud?”

“About what? You two are clearly in love with each other.” Renjun laughed and happily stole a piece of Jaemin’s bagel. “Trust me, I think everyone in the world knows that even without me announcing it.”

Face still red, Jeno shoved another piece of the bagel into Renjun’s mouth, effectively shushing him. “Just eat, Renjun.”

Deciding not to bend to their wishes of asking him to be quiet and drop the topic, Renjun said through a mouthful of food, “Sweeping this under the rug won’t solve anything. Your guys’ feelings are just accumulating until the day you can’t keep it in anymore and you’re just going to explode, which is not healthy at all.”

Renjun watched as the two boys in front of him shared a shy look with one another before fixing their gaze on the wooden table top and growing quiet.

Seeing this as his opportunity to get some words off his chest, Renjun smiled. “Come on now, you two. Jeno, you have feelings for Jaemin. And Jaemin, you have feelings for Jeno. It’s honestly not that complicated. You’re making it more complicated than it needs to be.”

“But we’ve been friends for so long. We’re fine just the way we are right now. I’m content with the friendship that I’m sharing with Jeno.” Jaemin voiced, to which Jeno nodded in agreement. “We don’t want to change anything and ruin what we have with one another.”

“You won’t know that unless you change it, right? What happens if it’s even better than what you have currently? Like, a thousand times better. Wouldn’t you want that?”

“Not if it means sacrificing our friendship.”

“Who says that you’re sacrificing your friendship if you decide to become boyfriends? You two can still be best friends. I know a lot of people who are best friends with their significant others.” 

“We don’t really care for labels. We’re okay with what we are.” Jeno interrupted, his eyes locking with Jaemin. “Right, Nana?”

Jaemin nodded, a smile finding its way onto his lips as he pinched Jeno’s cheek lovingly, “That’s right.”

Disgusted by the display of affection before him, Renjun gagged. “Okay, okay. Soft hours are closed. You two are so gross. Let’s move on with the project before I throw up the bagel that I just ate.”

“Hey, you’re the one that started that conversation. Not our fault.” Jeno teased as he made an effort to amp up the affection, pulling Jaemin in for a tight hug and kissing his forehead as he did.

“Yes, yes. It was my fault. Now, let’s move on.” 

Words muffled by Jeno’s arms, Jaemin whipped out his phone, exclaiming, “Oh, my gosh. Say that again. We need video evidence that the Great Renjun admits to his faults!”

Snatching the phone out from Jaemin’s hand and giving the two boys a good flick on their foreheads, Renjun grumbled, “Shut up. We have a project to do.”

“Yes, sir!” They chorused back at him amidst fits of laughter. 

.

Later that night, when they all bade each other goodbye after slaving away at their project for hours on end, Jeno and Jaemin made their way home. 

As they walked down the familiar road to their shared apartment, their hands kept on knocking against each other with each step. This was normal for them, and it never really bothered either one of them, until now. 

When the backs of their hands knocked against each other for the third time, they both pulled their hands away, distancing themselves as if the touch burned them. Faces turning red, they mumbled quiet apologies to each other, feeling incredibly embarrassed with each passing second. Shoving their hands into the pockets of their jackets, they continued walking the rest of the way back to their place with awkward silence. 

Once they reached the door to their apartment, Jaemin opened it with shaking hands, nearly dropping the keys from his nerves. Seeing his struggle, Jeno quietly took the keys out of his hands and opened the door for the both of them with ease.

“Thanks,” Jaemin stammered out as he headed inside first, with Jeno right behind his heels. 

The moment that they stepped pass the threshold to their apartment, Jeno spoke out, “We should have a talk, Jaemin.”

Jaemin’s heart practically plummeted at Jeno’s words. Whipping around to face the boy, his lips parted in shock. “A talk?”

“Yeah,” Jeno pulled Jaemin into their living room and onto their couch. He grasped onto his hands tightly, making eye contact with him. “You know, Renjun has a point. We should really talk about what’s going on between us.”

Blood draining from his face, his hands shaking within Jeno’s grasp, Jaemin stammered out, “About what?” Tone wavering near the end of the sentence, Jaemin felt himself succumb to his nerves, his palms sweating like crazy. Feeling incredibly self-conscious about himself, he tried to pull his hands out from Jeno’s grasp but he held on even tighter. 

Lips pressing into a thin line, Jeno sighed. “You know what I’m talking about, Nana. It’s something that we’ve both held off from talking about for so long now. It’s only a matter of time before it’s brought up again.”

“I know… but do we have to talk about it?”

“Yes. Because if we don’t sort out and settle what’s going between us, how are we supposed to settle what’s going between us and Renjun?”

“Renjun?” Jaemin squeaked, his voice turning smaller at the mention of him.

“Yes, Renjun. Who else would it be, dummy?” Jeno said, smiling fondly. He untangled their fingers and reached up to brush some strands of hair out of Jaemin’s eyes. Then, giving him a knowing look, “I can see how you look at him, Nana. You like him too.”

Jeno watched as Jaemin dropped their eye contact instantly, the tips of his ears turning red. Finding it endearing, Jeno couldn’t help but pinch the tips of his ears, cooing, “Aw, you’re blushing! You’re so cute, Nana!”

“Stop making fun of me, Jeno!” Jaemin whined, his face feeling awfully warm. “I know that you like Renjun, too!”

Shrugging his shoulders, Jeno laughed, “I never said that I didn’t.” Seeing that he had done more than enough teasing, Jeno pulled Jaemin into his arms. Then, tucking the boy underneath his chin, he ran a light hand through his hair. “But seriously, Jaemin. You’ve been around for as long as I can remember. I don’t think I can imagine a single day without you in my life. You’re my best friend, my soulmate, and my entire world. You’re everything to me.”

“You’re the same to me too, Jeno…”

“I know we’ve been dancing around this topic for a while but I don’t think that it’s healthy to hold it off for this long. Even our friends are talking about it more than us.”

“They’re naturally gossipy and nosy like that, especially Donghyuck.”

Jeno chuckled, his whole body shaking. “You’re not wrong about that.” Then, pulling back so that he could look Jaemin in the eyes, he took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart. 

“I love you, Jaemin. I truly love you with all my heart and soul. You’re the person that I want to see first thing in the morning, and the last thing that I want to think about before I go to sleep at night. I want to be there for you, every step of the way, in every way possible. I don’t want to miss a single moment in your life, from the little things to the big milestones. I want to be there. And I want you to be there for me too.”

By the end of his confession, Jeno felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. It felt so much easier to breathe now that he’d gotten all that he’d been wanting to say for years off of his chest. 

Leaning in close to Jaemin, he placed a tender kiss on his forehead, whispering, “Na Jaemin, will you be my boyfriend?”

.

Jaemin honestly couldn’t believe that what happened that night actually happened. 

Everything was too good to be true and it seemed like a dream to him. 

But as he lay there in the comfort of Jeno’s arms, Jaemin thought that maybe this was real after all. With a smile on his lips and his heart full, Jaemin snuggled closer to Jeno, relishing in the warmth that was radiating off of him. 

Feeling Jaemin’s movement, Jeno’s arms immediately tightened around his body, mumbling sleepy and incoherent words as he did. 

Biting back the urge to laugh, Jaemin laid his head on Jeno’s chest. Closing his eyes, he allowed the steady sound of Jeno’s heartbeat to lull him back to sleep. And just before he fell asleep, he whispered, “I love you too, Lee Jeno…”

.

It had been a while since Jeno last met up with Doyoung, so when he randomly texted Jeno out of the blue, asking to get dinner, Jeno jumped on board with no hesitation.

Doyoung picked the place, and it was a cute little ramen shop. Opening the door wide, Jeno searched for the older boy, finding him situated in one of the booths all the way in the back. As he maneuvered his way through the shop, a big smile on his face, he called out for him, “Doyoung hyung!”

Doyoung looked up from the menu in his hand, surprise on his face, only to be replaced with a dazzling smile seconds later. “Yah, Lee Jeno!” Before he even made it to the booth, Doyoung was already standing up and pulling him into a tight hug. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you!”

“It’s been very long, for sure.” 

After releasing him from the hug, Doyoung quickly motioned for him to sit down. Then, shoving the menu in his direction, Doyoung urged him to choose anything he wanted, saying, “My treat. Order whatever you like, kiddo.” 

“Thanks, hyung.”

Doyoung waved his hand absentmindedly in the air. “That’s what I’m around for. Anyways, how’s life? How are the  _ boys _ ?”

“What boys?” Jeno stuttered out, the tip of his ears turning bright red. 

Doyoung rolled his eyes before leaning in, “You know exactly what I’m talking about, Jeno. So fess up. Donghyuck’s already given me some of the gossip.”

Cursing Donghyuck underneath his breath, Jeno sighed, before mumbling, “There’s not much to it, really.”

“That’s such a blatant lie. Come on now, tell me about these boys of yours. I already know about Jaemin. Who’s this Renjun boy that has your heart all into a frenzy as well?” 

At the mention of Renjun’s name, Jeno’s eyes lit up and his mood was lifted almost instantly. Something that Doyoung did not miss. 

“Oh, yeah! You haven’t met Renjun yet have you?” Jeno smiled, his eyes sparkling as he talked about the boy. “He’s the cutest! I know Jaemin is cute but Renjun might just be a little cuter…”

“Really? Jaemin’s cuteness is kind of hard to beat.”

“It is, but even Jaemin admits defeat to Renjun. It’s kind of funny.” 

“Oh, man. My loveable Jeno,” Doyoung began, a smile spreading wide across his lips. “You are absolutely, without a doubt, so whipped for these boys.”

.

It was T-minus two weeks until their programming project was due and they were nowhere close to being finished with it. Deciding that it was time for them to buckle down and get some work done, Jaemin invited Renjun over to their place to work. 

“You can stay for dinner too, if you’d like,” Jaemin told him. “It’s hot pot night and we know that that’s your favorite.” 

“Oh my gosh, hot pot?” Renjun’s eyes lit up at the mention of his favorite dish. “I haven’t had hot pot in so long.” 

“Then come over! It’s probably not the same as what you would get in China but it’s pretty good,” Jeno commented as he threw his hand around his boyfriend’s shoulders. “Hot pot is literally perfect for this weather.”

“And I know that you’re not doing anything else after we do our project, anyways!” Jaemin added, throwing in a pout for good measure. Jaemin tugged on Renjun’s arm, whining, “Come on! Stay for dinner, Injunnie!”

Renjun felt slightly appalled by Jaemin’s sudden aegyo act, his face twisting into one of disgust. Beside him, Jeno laughed at his reaction. Jaemin loved to amp up his cuteness when he wanted something in particular. Jeno was used to it, but he figured that Renjun wasn’t. 

“He’s going to continue that until you say yes, you know,” Jeno told him. 

“Does he do this all the time?” Renjun asked, trying to pull away from Jaemin, but he just clung onto him even tighter. 

Jeno nodded, a smile on his lips. “All the time. It's his specialty.”

“Injunnie,” Jaemin continued to whine. 

By this point, they were attracting quite a bit of unwanted attention to themselves. Face flushing red, Renjun held his hands up in defeat, still trying to shake Jaemin off of his arm. “Okay, okay. Stop it. I’ll come over for hot pot.”

After hearing his answer, Jaemin dropped his aegyo act instantly and turned around to latch himself onto Jeno instead. Eyes gleaming, he said haughtily, “It always works like a charm.”

.

It was nearing two in the morning, when Jaemin heard Renjun stifle a yawn beside him. Jeno had already given up on the project after finishing his section of the code. He was knocked out on Jaemin’s shoulder, deep asleep. 

Giving Renjun a slight nudge, Jaemin laughed quietly. “You can go to sleep too, you know? We’re practically finished. It’s just my section left.”

“It’s okay. I’m still proofreading mine.” Renjun told him. “Plus, I’ll keep you company.”

“Alright, if you say so.”

With each passing second, and every click of the keyboard, Jaemin felt Renjun getting more sleepy, just as he expected. When Renjun yawned for the fifth time in the past minute, Jaemin finally decided to do something about it. 

Fingers still flying across his laptop, Jaemin offered his shoulder to Renjun. “Come on, I know you’re sleepy. And I take pride in having a very comfortable shoulder to sleep on.” 

Yawning yet again, Renjun whispered, “Well, what about Jeno?”

At his comment, Jaemin couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle. Glancing at Jeno, who was still deep asleep to his left, Jaemin said with a smirk,  “I have two shoulders for a reason, you know.”

Renjun flushed an even deeper red at Jaemin’s words. But shaking his head, Renjun stuttered out, “No. I’m not sleepy.”

“Hmm, sure, whatever you say.”

But as Jaemin had expected, he felt Renjun dozing off not more than a couple of minutes later. With a defeated sigh, Jaemin took a little break from his coding. His sigh couldn’t help but deepen when he caught sight of Renjun fast asleep, his neck bent at an awkward, painful angle. Jaemin knew if Renjun continued to sleep like that any longer, he’d complain until no tomorrow about his neck. 

As gently as he could, Jaemin tilted Renjun’s head onto his shoulder, careful not to stir the boy awake. Once he felt that he managed to have both boys settled and fast asleep his shoulders, Jaemin smiled to himself, feeling extremely content. 

With Jeno to his left and Renjun to his right, Jaemin went back to finishing his code. 

.

When Jaemin woke up the next morning, his neck hurt like a bitch. But, as he glanced over to the two boys that he had on each of shoulders, he figured that the pain was worth it. Because there, resting on his shoulders, were two of the most beautiful boys he’d ever laid his eyes on. 

Jeno immediately turned into a puppy when he slept. Exactly like a samoyed dog, Jaemin’s favorite. Even in his sleep, his eyes were smiling, turning into tiny half moon crescents. The only difference was that he seemed more relaxed and at peace. Jaemin figured that Jeno must have forgotten to take off his glasses before he knocked out because they were slipping down the bridge of his nose. As carefully as he could, Jaemin pulled his arm out from under Renjun’s body and took the glasses off for Jeno. Then, setting them onto the coffee table in front of him, Jaemin looked over to his right. 

His heart almost skipped a beat at what he saw. 

Renjun had his head nestled almost completely in the nape of Jaemin’s neck, warm air caressing his collarbone with every breath that he took. Renjun’s hair was messily resting across his forehead, adding to his cuteness. Unable to help himself, Jaemin reached over to brush the strands out of his face. Watching as Renjun stirred lightly under his touch, but didn’t wake up entirely, Jaemin daringly ran the tip of his fingers over the planes of his face. 

Jaemin could feel his heart racing within his chest, and the blood pumping loudly in his ears. Renjun was honestly so beautiful. Jaemin had thought this from the first day he had met him. 

Renjun was beautiful in the way he held himself and presented himself to the world. He was beautiful in the way that his eyes would light up when he talked about things that he liked, or his home back in China. He was beautiful in the way his nose would scrunch up and his eyes would water as he tried to drink Jaemin's hellish cup of coffee. He was beautiful in the way that his cheeks would turn red and his eyes shy when Jaemin praised or complimented him. He was beautiful in the way that he would look at Jaemin so intently whenever they talked. 

As his fingers reached over to brush a strand of hair behind his ears, Jaemin heard Jeno stir awake on his other shoulder. Dropping his hand almost instantly, Jaemin placed his focus on Jeno. He watched with a warm heart as Jeno lifted his head from his shoulder, eyes squinting from the bright sunlight filtering in from the windows. 

Jeno tried to rub the sleep from his eyes as he yawned. Then, smiling goofily, he leaned in to give Jaemin a quick peck on the nose. “Good morning.”

Jaemin couldn’t help but smile as he returned the greeting. “Good morning to you too, sleepyhead.” Then, reaching out to fix Jeno’s bed hair, he handed the boy his glasses. “Sleep well?”

“Yeah, I did. My neck kind of hurts, but it’s okay. You were a good pillow, Nana.” 

“Why, thank you, I pride myself for being that.” Jaemin teased back. 

“Seems like Renjun can say the same too,” Jeno pointed out as he nodded his head towards the other sleeping boy on Jaemin’s shoulder. Sighing, Jeno added softly, “He’s so cute.”

Jaemin nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly with his words. “He is pretty cute.”

“He’s so tiny, too. I just want to keep him in my pocket.”

“He’s literally the perfect size. It’s freaking adorable.”

During their fervent rambles about how cute the boy was, Renjun slowly began to wake up. 

Cursing quietly, Jaemin whispered, “Oh shit. We woke him up.”

“It’s fine…” Renjun mumbled out, voice laced with sleep. Then, rubbing his eyes tiredly, he said, “It’s about time I woke up anyways. I have to head into work soon.”

“You have work today?” Jaemin exclaimed, shocked. “You should have told us that you had work, we wouldn’t have had you stay up so late to finish the project with us!”

“Yeah, you should’ve told us, Renjun.” Jeno complained.

Shaking his head, Renjun just smiled. “It’s fine, really. I still have an hour or two before I really have to head to work. Plus, the project is due soon anyways, we really needed to work on it.”

“Me and Jeno could’ve finished it.” Jaemin pouted.

“And have you two carry my weight on the project? I couldn’t let you do that. Seriously, it’s not that big of a deal.”

“Alright, if you say so. But you definitely have to stay for breakfast.” 

Jeno nodded excitedly, “Yes! You have to stay for breakfast. Jaemin makes the best pancakes in the world. You probably won’t believe me, but trust me, they are. Just taste them for yourself.” 

.

Renjun felt at home when he was with these two boys. 

It was a feeling that he hadn’t felt in a long, long time, ever since he left China to study abroad. But it felt so nice to be so cared for and loved. It was a nice change. These two boys were the best thing that could’ve ever happened to him. 

He honestly didn’t know what he did before they entered into his life. 

Jeno wasn’t as affectionate as Jaemin, but he had his own special way of showing that he cared. It was in the little things that he did for Renjun, such as sending him late night texts to remember to sleep well or to set his alarm clock for his ungodly eight am classes. Or like always packing along an extra sweater because he knew that the lecture hall would sometimes get too cold for Renjun’s liking. 

Jaemin, on the other hand, was everything affectionate. The exact opposite of Jeno. Jaemin wasn’t shy when it came to showing that he cared and loved someone. He was overly expressive in everything and anything that he did. He would pull Renjun in for hugs when he would least expect it. And then, sometimes, he would even kiss his forehead or cheeks. That definitely sent his heart racing at a hundred miles per hour. As much as Renjun would complain and shove the boy away out of embarrassment, Renjun loved it and he knew that Jaemin knew that, too. 

They both looked out for him and made sure that his wellbeing was above everything else in the world. 

The one day that he happened to oversleep and miss his lecture completely because he had come down with a little cold, Jeno and Jaemin were pounding on Renjun’s apartment door right after class. They were so surprised that he didn’t show up— since he was notorious for his perfect attendance—and when he didn’t answer any of their texts or calls they couldn’t help but be worried.

After reassuring them a million times that he was okay and that it was just a simple cold, they proceeded to baby the hell out of him. Which was nice, because he missed the feeling of being cared for, and the comfort that it gave him. 

For the rest of the day, they tended to everything little thing that he needed. Jaemin was in charge of cooking something warm and hearty for dinner, while Jeno kept him company for most of the day. In between his naps, Jeno was right there by his side, urging him to drink more water and fixing the blanket on his body every time that it slipped. And while he was awake, Jeno took it upon himself to tell him about their day and the current gossip.

It was around seven pm when Jaemin finally finished up cooking. From the kitchen, he called out for them. “Dinner’s ready! Jeno, help Renjun out.”

“Yeah, I’m on it!” Jeno shouted back as he began to clean up all of the schoolwork that he had been doing. Hastily shuffling all the papers together into a messy pile and closing his laptop, he reached out for Renjun and helped him up. Then, he asked with a smile, “You want a piggyback ride?”

Flushing red, Renjun coughed out an answer. “No. I’m fine. It’s just a cold. I can move. I’m not immobile.” 

With a shrug of his shoulders, Jeno added, “Never said you were. Plus, you don’t need to be sick to get a piggyback ride.”

Shaking his head, Renjun pulled the blanket closer around his body, hoping to hide his extremely red face from Jeno’s eyes. “No. I’m okay.”

“Alright. Offer still stands though, so just let me know.”

As they began shuffling their way towards the kitchen, Jaemin hollered for them again. “Guys, hurry up! The food is gonna get cold!”

“Yeah, yeah. We heard you the first time, Nana. We’re coming.” Jeno shouted back, hands on Renjun’s shoulders, guiding him. “We have a sick baby in the house, cut us some slack.”

At the mention of the sick boy, Jaemin’s footsteps were heard swiftly crossing the hardwood floor and he appeared before them. Linking his arm through Renjun’s, he helped quicken their pace to the kitchen.

Wanting to shake free from the boys’ hold, Renjun pouted. “You two are overreacting. I have a cold, not some deadly disease.”

“You know that you love the attention, so shush.” Jaemin told him, his tone full of amusement. Then, sending a wink in Jeno’s direction, he asked, “Isn’t that right, Jeno?”

“Absolutely.”

The only downside about these two boys was that Renjun could never win a fight between the two of them, especially when they would gang up on him like this. Growing silent and sulking just a little bit, he allowed them to sit him down at the table and baby him even more for the rest of the night without a word of protest. 

.

The next time he came into the office, Renjun decided to run through all of the security camera footage again. Both him and the other interns had rummaged through all the footage for days on end, finding nothing. But for some reason, he felt like he was going to discover something today. 

  
Swiping his key card in, Renjun headed straight for the camera room in the back. It was after hours, so there was no one in the building but himself, and that made him breathe a little easier. As he passed by a couple of the guards, he greeted them with a curt nod before moving on. 

Once he reached the camera room, the same guards from before were there. 

“Back again, Huang?” One of them asked, tone surprised. 

“Yeah. I’m going to see if I can find anything tonight,” Renjun replied as he waited for the guards to open the door for him.

“Everyone’s looked at it at least once, right? Still nothing?”

Renjun shook his head. “No. We haven’t found anything.”

“It’s been months, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, good luck then.”

“Thanks.” 

Bidding the guards a final goodbye, he entered into the room and closed the door behind him. Pulling one of the chairs out from under the table, he plopped down in it rather ungracefully before sighing. Then, logging into the security system, Renjun proceeded to pull up all the camera footage he could from that night. He looked through all of the different feeds again, just like he had the first time, and all the times after that. 

Renjun nursed a lukewarm cup of coffee in his hands, one that he managed to get on the way in, as he watched all of the footage. In between sips of coffee, he opened and closed videos after unsurprisingly not finding any leads in any of them. 

His motivation in the search for the hacker dwindled as he continued to find nothing in every video that he watched. He knew that this would be a futile attempt, but he just had an inkling that maybe, just maybe, tonight would be the night he would be able to crack the case. 

After a couple hundred videos and hours of watching them, Renjun pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling incredibly frustrated with himself. Instead of being at home, or hanging out with Jeno and Jaemin, he was here, mindlessly watching corrupted videos. Even with this in mind, Renjun continued to push through. Closing the video that he just finished, he pulled up another one. This time it was one from inside the ventilation unit. 

Thankful for a change of scenery, Renjun leaned back in his chair, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. As he did this, Renjun noticed something in the corner of the screen. Jerking forward, feeling fully awake, he zoomed in on the movement. 

If he hadn’t been looking closely, he would’ve just disregarded it as a glitch in the footage. But as he inspected the movement, Renjun realized that it was a person escaping through the vents. Zooming in as far as the computer would let him, he watched with sharp eyes for the hacker. 

The person was decked out in black clothing from head to toe, blending in effortlessly with the shadows. As he continued to watch the video, a shocked gasp left his lips as he realized that there was more than one person. Hitting the pause button, Renjun slouched back in his seat, letting the newfound discovery sink in. 

There wasn’t just one hacker, but in fact two. 

It made complete sense that it was a two person job. There was no way that one person could’ve single-handedly accomplished everything that was done that night. 

Unpausing the video, Renjun leaned in closer to the screen to further inspect the hackers, hoping to see who they were. But he wasn’t able to do so, since they made sure to conceal their identities well, not to mention the quality of the video wasn’t all that good. 

That was okay though, because what he saw was good enough for him to identify exactly who the hackers were. 

Because there, reflecting off the camera, was a familiar silver bracelet that he knew all too well. 

.

What he had discovered last night was still heavy on his mind. He wasn’t able to sleep at all last night; it kept him up, causing him to toss and turn. Sleep didn’t come to him until the crack of dawn. By the time he had managed to calm his mind and heart, it was time for him to head back to work again. 

He hadn’t told anyone of his discovery yet. It was a secret that he had been keeping to himself. Renjun had tried his best to keep his composure throughout the entire morning shift. Sicheng had given him some weird looks whenever Renjun bit his nails absentmindedly. But after reassuring Sicheng that he was just nervous about their upcoming finals, he nodded in understanding and gave him a reassuring pat on the back, saying, “You’re ridiculously smart, Renjun. You’ll be fine.” 

Renjun just gave him a blank nod in return. 

The moment that his shift ended, Renjun was shutting down his computers and gathering all of his items. Nearly tripping over his own two feet, Renjun bade Sicheng and his other co-workers a quick goodbye before swiping out of the building. 

He had promised Jeno and Jaemin that he would meet up with them to work on their project together before they submit it. But that was before he had made his recent discovery. Now, all Renjun wanted to do was to go home and curl up under his sheets, trying to sleep away all his problems.

Coming up to the coffee shop, Renjun saw the boys already inside, waiting for him. Renjun stood outside, in the parking lot for a moment, trying to collect all of his thoughts. He didn’t realize that he had been standing out there for so long until his phone rang, startling him out of his daze. 

It was Jaemin. He answered the call after a second of hesitation. “Hey?”

“Hey to you, too! What are you doing standing out there like an idiot, Injunnie?” Jaemin laughed, his hand waving at him from inside the cafe. 

Giving the boy a weak wave back, Renjun cleared his throat. “Oh, it’s nothing. I’m coming in.”

“Hurry up, then. The project isn’t going to finish itself, silly.” 

“I know. I’m going to hang up now,” Renjun told him. 

“Okay. See you inside!”

Pocketing his phone, Renjun took a deep breath and walked inside the cafe. 

Even though he had already seen where they were seated, the boys still waved at him wildly, trying to catch his attention. “Over here!”

Shaking his head, Renjun sat down in the seat across from them. His cute boys will never change. As he sat down, he watched as they started pulling out their personal laptops. Seeing this, he did the same and booted up his laptop, too.

“We already ordered for you, hope you don’t mind.” 

“No, that’s okay. Thank you.”

Without another word, they began discussing their project amongst themselves. And as talks about algorithms and codes consumed Renjun’s mind, he began to feel more at ease. He forgot all about the worries that had held him hostage since his discovery. Instead, he started to smile and laugh at all of Jaemin’s whining and Jeno’s lame jokes. 

They caught up on everything that had happened while they were away from each other. Jaemin told him about how annoying Jeno had been, always asking for food. This causes Jeno to complain about how mean Jaemin was for not cooking him anything while he was away for class. The banter that occurs between the two boys made Renjun laugh until his stomach hurt and he was gasping for air. 

“You two are so ridiculous, I swear,” Renjun managed to wheeze out in between fits of laughter. 

“No, Jeno’s being ridiculous. I’m not his personal chef. I’m not here to cater to his stomach twenty-four seven,” Jaemin huffed out, his lips settling into a firm line. 

“Oh, come on, Nana.” Jeno whined, his head leaning on Jaemin’s shoulder. Activating his aegyo, he said, “Don’t be upset. I just wanted my boyfriend to feed me.”

“Well, said boyfriend is unavailable and tired of your hungry ass. Cook for yourself.” 

“Cook for himself?” Renjun asked, amusement evident in his voice. Laughing loudly, he pointed a finger at Jeno. “You want  _ him _ to cook? Do you want him to burn down the apartment? He can’t even boil water without it evaporating completely.”

“See!” Jeno exclaimed. “Renjun understands me.”

“Okay then,” Jaemin began, his face stoic. “If Renjun understands you  _ so  _ much, why don’t you call for him when you want something to eat?”

Raising his hands up instantly, Renjun said, “Wait, hold up. I did not sign up for that.”

At the same time, Jeno gave Jaemin puppy dog eyes. Tugging on Jaemin’s sleeves, he said, “I didn’t not mean it like that, Nana…”

“Whatever,” Jaemin said with a roll of his eyes. He was clearly still annoyed, but it was slowly fading as Jeno began to pepper his face with kisses. When Jeno gave him a quick peck on the lips, his annoyance disappeared completely. With a sigh, he reached out to pinch Jeno’s cheek before saying, “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

“Thank you,” Jeno smiled. 

“Anyways, how was your week Injunnie? How’s work?” 

At the mere mention of work, Renjun froze on the spot. Eyes growing wide at the sudden question— one that he had not mentally prepared himself to answer and lie about yet— Renjun averted his gaze from the boys. Feeling his throat dry up from nerves, he reached out for the water in front of him, taking a long sip. Tongue running over his bottom lip, he opened his mouth to answer back, but the sound of a cell phone ringing stopped him before he could even start. 

Jeno apologized profusely to him as he answered the call almost immediately after glancing at the caller ID. His eyes made contact with Renjun’s for a split second before he looked over at Jaemin worriedly. He made a whole ordeal of cupping his mouth to his phone as he talked into it, seemingly wanting his conversation to not be heard. 

From an outsider’s perspective, it just seemed like Jeno was trying to be polite and not talk too loud during their study session, but Renjun knew better. Jeno was trying to keep the conversation he was having on the phone as private as possible. The conversation wasn’t supposed to happen out in the open like this. If it weren’t for him being there, Jeno would’ve left the second he saw the caller ID and taken it outside. 

As Jeno continued to talk on the phone, Jaemin spared him concerned looks every few seconds, and that was enough to confirm his suspicions. Renjun’s eyes landed on the silver bracelet Jaemin wore, light reflecting off of it because of the cafe’s bright lights, and it only solidified his suspicions He watched as Jaemin began to twist it more and more as the phone call went on. 

Then, the long phone call ended and Jeno turned to face him, face grim. “Jaemin and I have to go. Sorry, Injunnie. I know we promised that we would finish the project tonight but…”

Not surprised, Renjun clenched his hands tightly in his lap. Still, he asked, “You guys are leaving already? We literally just got here.”

“Yeah, I know. We’re so sorry, Renjun,” Jeno told him as he began to shove all of their things back into their respective bags. Then, sharing a look with Jaemin, he added, “We totally forgot about the plans that we made with our family tonight.”

Renjun’s eyes narrowed at Jeno’s terrible lie. Jeno couldn’t tell a lie if his life depended on it.

Heart tightening within his chest, he grumbled bitterly, “Family calls. It can’t be helped.” 

“Oh, Renjun. Please don’t be upset,” Jeno pleaded with him. 

“It’s fine.” 

“We’ll make it up to you, I promise.” Jeno whispered as he and Jaemin each leaned over to give him a soft peck on his cheek. 

He watched with a heavy heart as the boys left the cafe in a hurry.

Renjun knew that they were lying, because he noticed the familiar and matching black clothes shoved messily in their bags. The same exact attire that the hackers caught on the camera footage were wearing. 

Following his gut, Renjun quickly packed up all of his things, too. Then, dropping a couple of bills on the table to pay for their unfinished food, he dashed out the door after them. 

.

“I can’t believe that we completely forgot about the mission,” Jaemin said as they changed out of their current clothes and into their gear for the night. Shaking his head, he added, “Renjun is probably so pissed at us for bailing on him like that. Especially when  _ we’re  _ the ones that asked to study with him.”

Helping Jaemin with his bulletproof vest, Jeno nodded. “I know. But I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“Will he though?” Jaemin asked, his tone sad. “He seemed pretty upset when we left, Jeno.”

“We’ll sort it out with him after this mission,” Jeno promised. Then, giving Jaemin a soft kiss on his temple, he said, “Come on. Take a breather and push all those thoughts to the back of your mind. We have a mission to complete.”

“Yeah, let’s complete this mission and get home to our boy.”

Doing one final check to make sure that they had everything they needed, they gave Donghyuck the okay signal. Then, turning on their comms, Jeno and Jaemin slipped out of the car. 

Doing a sweep of the perimeter of the building, they saw the external cameras almost immediately. Counting six of them in total from the front, Jeno pressed into his mic, whispering, “Chenle, there’s six cameras we’re going to need you to intercept. Two right at the north entrance, and then the rest are along the west wing.”

“Got it,” Chenle replied back, the sound of his fingers flying across his keyboard echoing statically through their comm sets. Not more than a couple of minutes later, Chenle spoke up again. “Alright. You’re clear to go. There’s a set right side the lobby, I went ahead and cleared those and the ones directly following the corridors to the tech room.” 

“Thanks.” 

The boys made sure that the coast was clear again before they blended in with the shadows of the night, running across the parking lot and swiping themselves into the building with a copied badge. They wasted no time in getting to the tech room once the automatic doors slid open and let them in. Sticking close to the walls, they followed the directions that Donghyuck was giving them through their earpieces. 

“Following your next right, there should be a staircase that will lead you down to the ground floor. After that, the tech room will be to your left. To bypass the security doing their rounds for the night shift, go through the ventilation unit again.”

“We have to climb into those units again?” Jaemin whined as he shared a pained look with Jeno. “Those things are so freaking hot and tiny. Should’ve had Chenle do this mission. I would rather be on our cute date than this.”

“Well, sucks to suck then,” Chenle retorted sassily.

At the same time, Donghyuck commented dryly, “You’re not the only one missing out on date night because of this mission, so join the club.” 

Grumbling some incoherent things under his breath and cursing their luck, Jaemin followed Jeno down the staircase. Keeping the noise level to a minimum, they climbed down the staircase without another word, being extra careful to not let their feet hit the concrete stairs too loudly. As they approached the bottom, Jeno caught sight of the vent right away. Dropping to his knees, he unzipped his backpack and reached for the tools inside to open the vent. 

Nimble fingers working fast, he successfully removed the vent cover and set the metal piece to the side. Then, offering Jaemin his hands, he motioned for him to come closer. Nodding in understanding, Jaemin braced himself as Jeno hoisted him up into the ventilation unit. 

Once Jaemin found his footing within the unit, he leaned down and reached for Jeno’s extended arm, pulling him up with ease. Then, whispering into his earpiece, he said, “We’re in. The tech room should just be down the vent, right? If it’s to the left of the stairway?”

Donghyuck hummed in agreement. “Yeah. It’s about twenty feet down the vent.” 

They were barely a minute into crawling through the vents when Jaemin started to complain again. Tugging at his black turtleneck, he shook his head. “The vents are a blessing, but they’re also a curse. It’s so fucking hot.”

“Obviously it would be hot,” Donghyuck commented and Jaemin could just hear his eye roll through the comms. “Jisung had to shut down the entire air conditioning system so that you two could crawl through the vents. Unless you want to crawl through dust and debris flying into your faces, quit complaining.” 

“Jeno, Hyuck is being mean again.” Jaemin pouted as he turned his head to look at Jeno behind him.

Sighing at his boyfriend’s childish antics, Jeno simply gave Jaemin a gentle pat on his back. “I know. I’ll let Mark know that he’s bullying you, Nana.” 

Donghyuck scoffed, his voice becoming haughty. “Like Mark is going to do anything about it. He loves me.”

This time, it was Chenle who gave a high pitched laugh, making all of the boys wince at the level of sound that traveled to their ears. “Whether he loves you or not, hyung, if you cause them to mess up the mission, Mark is going to be pissed at you.”

At his words, Donghyuck clamped his mouth shut immediately. 

Mark was usually nice and chill, but when he wanted to be, he was downright terrifying and was definitely not someone to mess with. 

Traveling the rest of the way in silence, they finally reached the tech room. Letting Jeno unscrew the opening again, Jaemin waited patiently as he lifted the grid. Once it was propped open, he dropped a rope down and lowered himself into the room. 

Not waiting to make sure that Jeno got down safely, which Jeno was more than capable of doing, Jaemin headed straight for the computers in the room. Connecting his laptop to the server, he hooked an external hard drive up to the internal system. Jaemin cracked his way through the security in a matter of seconds, overriding all of the codes and bypassing the system’s firewalls

Eyes focused and fingers fast, he called out to Jeno. “Okay, I’m in. Download the files that Mark wants and let’s get out of here.” As he said this, Jaemin couldn’t help but feel suddenly incredibly tense. Trying to brush his anxiousness to the side, Jaemin shook his head. “Let’s finish this fast because I want to leave. Don’t know why but I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Me too, Nana. Me too.” 

.

Renjun had kept a fairly large distance between himself and the boys as he trailed behind them. He knew that he shouldn’t have been that surprised that they were heading to the Special Unit branch in Busan. It was only a matter of time before they started to hack into the other branches based on the information that they had stolen from Seoul’s Central Intelligence. 

For the incredibly skilled hackers that they were, Renjun would’ve thought that they would’ve caught him following them already. Thankfully, it seemed like both boys had their minds too occupied to take notice of him. 

He had followed them all the way down to the bottom of the staircase, where he hid on the floor right above them as they made their way into the vents. 

Renjun would’ve followed them into the vent had it not been so high up. Both boys were taller than he was, but even Jaemin had to get help from Jeno to climb up into those vents. There was no way he could’ve done it on his own. Not to mention, crawling into the vents with them would’ve alerted them to his presence. The vents were only so big, and there wasn’t anywhere to hide within them. They would’ve caught onto him the moment he entered the unit. 

Instead, Renjun staked them out at the bottom of the stairs, leaning tiredly against the railings. He sat there, clenching his hands together and nervously gnawing on his lips as he waited for their return. As he did this, Renjun ran through some hypothetical scenarios on how he would confront them about everything. His mind ran blank each time he tried to think of what he would say. 

Dropping his head into the palm of his hands, he let out a long sigh. 

This was all such a mess. 

It would be so much easier if he hadn’t developed feelings and grown attached to these boys. But no, his heart just had to go and become completely smitten with them. The feelings that he had for them made it complicated, and very difficult for him to do the right thing. The right thing in this situation was to call Kun and alert the security guards that were doing their nightly rounds that there were intruders. And that said intruders were also responsible for the hacking incident that occurred at the headquarters. 

But he couldn’t. Renjun couldn’t do that. 

If he did, the boys within the tech room trying to steal whatever information they needed would be as good as dead. One word and they would be taken out instantly for what they’ve done, stealing classified information from the government. There wouldn’t be any way to save them if they were caught. Renjun knew, because the consequences of leaking classified information, or helping someone obtain said information, were stated within the handbook whose rules he agreed to follow when he became an intern. 

As Renjun realized the depth of the situation, he laughed dryly, sucking in a shuddering breath as his heart clenched painfully within his chest. By letting them do as they pleased, without alerting the security of their presence, he was  _ definitely _ helping them with this. 

While he was having this internal debate with himself, Renjun hadn’t even realized that Jaemin and Jeno were finished with what they were doing and were coming back through the vents to leave. 

Jumping to his feet as he heard the sound of their hushed whispers, Renjun waited for them at the bottom of the vents. With each passing second until the boys reached him, he felt his nerves skyrocket. He tried to ease his racing heart as best as he could, but when Jaemin made eye contact with him, the wind was knocked out of his lungs. Jaw going slack, he tried to say something, but all that came out was air. 

“Renjun…” Jaemin whispered, his voice laced with disbelief. 

Behind him, Jeno pushed against Jaemin to see why the boy had stopped, but when he caught sight of Renjun standing before them, his eyes widened. 

They all stared at each other for a moment, without saying a single word. It wasn’t until a static call from the boys’ comms broke the silence. 

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Jeno ushered for Jaemin to get down. “Jaemin, we have to get out. We don’t have much time to waste.”

“Oh, yeah, right.” Jaemin nodded. Then, sparing Renjun another glance, he hastily climbed down the vents with Jeno right behind him. 

Renjun watched in fascination at the speed that Jeno screwed the cover back onto the vent. Before he knew it, Jaemin was grasping onto his upper arm tightly, pulling him up the staircase with them. When his mind finally registered all that was happening, Renjun dug his heels into the ground, pulling Jaemin to an abrupt stop. 

“Wait. Stop,” Renjun called out to him as he tugged on both Jaemin and Jeno’s arms. 

Jeno merely shook his head, saying, “Later, Renjun. We have to get out of here  _ now. _ ”

“No.” Renjun stopped the boys from hauling him up the stairs. Shaking his head feverishly, he said, “I’m not going anywhere until you two explain to me what the hell is going on. Now.” 

“Renjun, please. We really don’t have the time for this right now. Once we get out and get you out of here safely, we’ll explain everything. I promise.” Jaemin pleaded with him, eyes drowning with fear, and voice wavering at the end of his sentence. 

“We’ll explain everything. Seriously, Renjun,” Jeno added on. 

“No.” Renjun shook both of their hands off of him, feeling himself grow angrier as they all continued to stand in the middle of the staircase. “No. I refuse to go anywhere with you two until you explain yourselves. Why the  _ fuck  _ are you guys hacking into our buildings and stealing  _ classified  _ information?”

“Wait,” Jaemin stammered out, his hand growing limp at his side. “What do you mean ‘our’?”

“Our buildings,  _ my _ buildings. I told you two that I intern at a pretty private agency.” 

“Yeah! But you didn’t fucking mention that you intern for the damn _government_, Seoul’s Central Intelligence of all places. What the fuck?” Jaemin hissed, his face turning red as he spat out each word. Then, whipping around to face Jeno, he asked hotly, “Did you fucking know about this?”

Jeno’s face hardened as he glards back at Renjun. “No, I did not.”

Throwing his hands up in the air, equally angry, Renjun shouted, “Well, you two never asked. And it’s not like you two were being completely transparent with what you did either. At least I hold a much more legal job than whatever you two are doing.” Pointing at all their gear, he added on hotly, “Seriously, what the fuck are you guys even doing?”

“What we do is none of your business, Renjun.”

“Well you’re inside  _ our _ buildings and hacking into  _ our _ systems, so it is my business, Jeno.” 

By this point in their heated conversation, they’d long forgotten the time and place. They were long past trying to be secretive and discrete. Their voices were way above the volume that they should’ve been at, and they were shouting at each other. It was way too late to draw back, because the sound of alarms blaring loudly throughout the entire building reached their ears. 

“Oh, fuck,” Jeno cursed loudly. Running an exhausted hand down his face, he tapped his earpiece, asking, “How much time do we have to get out of here?”

“Zero, you dumbasses,” Donghyuck hissed back. “We warned you two but no, you  _ had _ to have a lovers spat in the middle of a mission.” 

Without a second thought, Jeno hauled Jaemin and Renjun up the stairs two at a time and taking no resistance from them. He pushed Jaemin out the door first, telling him to load up and brace for an attack. Then, Jeno pushes Renjun out, following right behind him. 

Hands dropping to his waist for the gun that was strapped there, Jeno told Renjun, “Not another word until we all get out of here, alright?” He felt that he was a little too harsh on him, seeing as to how he flinched at the words thrown at him. Jeno added on a little more softly, “Once we’re all safe, you can ask us anything you want.”

Nodding his head, Renjun accepted Jeno’s terms, because they really did need to get out there. As he opened his mouth to say something else, his voice died instantly in his throat as the sound of a gunshot ripped through the air. Hands flying up to cover his ears as Jeno pushed him to the ground, he searched wildly for Jaemin, heart beating erratically in his chest. 

Everything that happened in the next couple of minutes was nothing but a blur. 

He heard Jeno scream Jaemin’s name, fear enveloping his entire body as he did. Then he saw Jaemin lying on the floor ahead of them, clutching onto his side, face contorted in immense pain. Everything was so chaotic around him, from the blaring alarms, the sound of security heading their way, and Jeno’s cries, that Renjun was barely able to register the fact that Jaemin had been shot. 

Renjun felt his body lock up and his breathing grew frantic as he caught sight of the blood pooling around Jaemin’s body.

Fear swallowed him whole as he watched Jeno cradle Jaemin’s head in his arms. Before he could get up and scramble over to them, someone yanked him up from the ground and shoved him away. Renjun tried to call out to Jeno to warn him about the guard but his voice betrayed him. All that he could do was watch with a heavy heart as the guards dove straight for the two boys as another guard dragged him away from the scene. 

.

Once the guard had confirmed his identify and verified that he was indeed an employee like he had said he was, they left him alone in one of the conference rooms as they headed out to deal with the security breach. 

The moment they were out of sight, Renjun jumped up from his seat and ran out the door. As he was expecting, there was not a single guard outside the room. Pleased to know that there wasn’t anyone holding him back from finding his boys, Renjun ran straight down the corridor, eyes searching. 

He didn’t know how long he’d been running or where he was even running around to. All that he knew was that he needed to find them and see that they were okay with his own eyes. The memory of Jaemin’s limp body falling to the ground as the sound of the gunshot echoed off the walls sent his mind and heart into overdrive. Tears began to cloud his vision, but Renjun reached up to wipe them away angrily. Even though his legs and lungs screamed at him to stop, he pushed past the pain and continued to search for his boys. 

But he stopped himself short as he noticed the blood stains on the floor. Following the trail, he wasn’t surprised to have found the bodies of the guards that attacked the boys from earlier. They laid unconscious by the door, beaten and bruised. 

Without a second thought, Renjun ripped the door open and ran outside. 

Renjun was barely able to hold himself up when he spotted them in the rain around the back of the building. Salty, warm tears mixing in with the pouring rain, Renjun hastily made his way to them. As he reached them, he almost choked at the amount of red that he saw covering the two boys. Dropping to his knees, Renjun reached out to them with shaking hands, lips trembling. “Oh my god…”

Jeno paid him no mind as he continued to apply pressure to Jaemin’s wound. Throat thick with tears, he ground out, “Na Jaemin, you better fucking stay with me you asshole. Don’t fall asleep. Donghyuck is on his way.”

Jaemin seemed to want to say something, but his words were barely above a whisper, getting lost in the harsh wind. 

Seeing his attempt to talk, Jeno added even more pressure to the wound. Shaking his head, Jeno said. “Hey, don’t talk. Just stay awake, okay?”

When Jeno said that, Renjun felt the hot tears run down his cheeks even faster than before. Although his vision was blurred over from both the rain and his own tears, he could still make out the deathly pale skin of Jaemin’s face. Hands shaking even harder, he tried to gather himself together as he reached out and placed his hands right over Jeno’s, helping him apply more pressure. But as his hands began to feel warm from the blood staining them red, he felt himself choke up even more. 

Stuttering, he said, “Jeno… we have to get him to the hospital,  _ now _ . He’s losing so much blood… He’s not going to make it if we wait any longer.”

“No. He’ll make it.” Jeno bit out, his bloodshot eyes glaring right back at him. His gaze softened as he made eye contact with Renjun, whispering, “He has to make it, okay?” 

Renjun nodded. 

Jeno was right. 

Jaemin had to make it. 

If he didn’t—Renjun didn’t even want to think about it. 

Renjun noticed then that Jaemin wasn’t the only one that was injured. Catching sight of the huge gash that Jeno had on his arm, Renjun immediately withdrew his hands to apply pressure to Jeno’s wound instead. Eyes flicking between the two boys in front of him, Renjun cried out, heartbroken, “What did they do to you?”

Shrugging Renjun’s hands off of his arm, Jeno motioned for him to do it to Jaemin instead. With a concealed wince that Jeno thought Renjun wouldn’t notice, he rolled and flexed his arm. “I’m fine. It’s just a tiny cut. Help me with Jaemin.”

“Just a tiny cut?” Renjun shrieked. He eyes the blood running down Jeno’s arm like a river, mixing in with the rain. “You’re losing blood just as fast as Jaemin.”

“I said I’m fine, Renjun.” Jeno sighed, his voice hoarse as he did. “Please, just focus on Jaemin. I promise you I’ll make it out alive.” 

“You better! You both better! You hear that Na Jaemin?”

He watched in agony as Jaemin gave him a small smile, his face grimacing at the immense effort that he had to put in to do even that. 

They watched in concern as Jaemin tried to say something, his pale lips struggling to move. 

“Hey! I told you no talking, Nana.” Jeno cried out, making a big effort to shush the boy, but it was to no avail.

“Don’t worry… I can’t die without making you two my boyfriends, anyways.” Jaemin whispers, his words nearly getting lost in the rain. 

Renjun’s heart shattered into a million pieces at Jaemin’s promise. He knew that Jeno felt the exact same way, if not even more so. 

Donghyuck and the other guys reached them not more than a few minutes later. At the sight of them, Renjun felt like he could finally breathe again because he knew Jaemin was going to be okay. 

Donghyuck would make sure that he’d be okay. 

Renjun could trust him on that. 

Everything that happens in the next couple of minutes are nothing but a haze in Renjun’s mind. He remembered people asking him and Jeno to move out of the way so that they could give Jaemin the medical attention that he needed. He moved out of the way without a second thought, but Jeno didn’t even budge. Jeno continued to stick by Jaemin’s side like he always did and no one dared to pull them apart. 

.

Renjun spent the next couple of days alternating between staying by Jaemin’s bedside,and Jeno’s bedside. It wasn’t until the doctor deemed that Jaemin was healed enough to be released from the ICU that he was able to be by both of their sides at the same time. 

He hadn’t remembered a time where he’d cried so much in his life. 

Renjun cried until his eyes were bloodshot and so swollen that he could barely see through them. His nose was rubbed raw from the amount of times he had tried to wipe away all the runny snot with the sleeve of his shirt. He hadn’t gotten more than a wink of sleep in the past couple of days, but he didn’t care. Just the thought of being away from them pained him. He needed to be there. 

Jeno was the first to wake up, as his injuries weren’t as severe as Jaemin’s, but Renjun still cried regardless when he felt Jeno squeeze his hand in return that day. 

The sudden motion caught Renjun so off guard that he almost fell out of his seat when it happened. Lifting his head up from where it was resting over their connected hands, Renjun stared wide-eyed at Jeno, who gave him a weak smile in return. 

Immediately pressing the call button for a nurse, he stammered out, “How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?”

Jeno paid no mind to his question and asked one of his own, instead. Eyes still barely open, and voice weak, he asked, “Where’s Jaemin?”

At the mention of Jaemin, it took almost all of Renjun’s willpower to not burst out crying right then and there. Instead, he took a deep breath and exhaled deeply through his nose. Then, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side to where Jaemin was currently resting, he said, “He’s over there…”

Following Renjun’s line of vision, Jeno turned his head to the side to get a better view. 

Unable to watch Jeno’s reaction, Renjun cast his eyes downward, his hands wrapping themselves tighter around Jeno’s, trying to comfort him as best as he could. He listened for the expected gasp that left Jeno’s lips when he finally caught sight of Jaemin laying in the bed across from him. 

“Is he okay?” Jeno’s voice was barely above a whisper as he uttered those words. 

Renjun nodded, his throat running dry. Clearing his throat, he said, “Yeah… He’s stable. The doctor just moved him out of ICU a couple days ago.”

“ICU?”

“His injuries were more severe than we thought...” 

“Has he woken up at all?” 

Renjun shook his head. With wavering lips, he said, “No… not yet. They said that they’re not sure when he’ll wake up… All that they said was that his body was stable now.” 

He watched as Jeno swallowed, his eyes pained as he continued to stare at Jaemin. Then, giving Renjun’s hand a gentle squeeze, he said, “Don’t worry. Jaemin will be fine. He’ll be awake and nagging us in no time.” 

Unable to stop himself from laughing, he hummed in agreement. “You’re right.”

“I’m always right,” Jeno countered, his eyes holding an amused glint in them. Then, more softly, he added, “He has to be okay.”

Jeno was right. 

Jaemin had to be okay. 

Renjun wasn’t sure how he was going to live if Jaemin wasn’t. 

.

Even though Jeno had already woken up, the clinical team made him stay a couple more days in the hospital, not that he minded. Jaemin still hadn’t woken up, and he wasn’t going to go anywhere else until he did. He knew that Renjun felt the same way. 

Speaking of Renjun, Jeno couldn’t help but drop his sad thoughts as he looked at the boy resting at his side, his head propped up against his leg. Running a hand through Renjun’s hair, he smiled. 

Jeno honestly didn’t think that he could’ve survived this long and not gone insane if it wasn’t for Renjun being there for him. Jaemin was usually the one that held him down, anchored him to reality when he was falling apart. Now that Jaemin wasn’t there to do that, Jeno was on the verge of breaking apart completely with no way of recovering. 

Renjun was there for him all day and night. He was there when Jeno would wake up, and he was there before Jeno would fall asleep. He had taken turns, dividing the time that he spent at each boy’s bedside. Sometimes he would hold Jaemin’s hand and fall asleep. Other times he would hold Jeno’s. Regardless, he was there. 

Jeno was thankful, and he made sure to show that he was thankful for Renjun in every way that he could. 

Whenever he had the chance to, Jeno showered him with all the love and affection that he could. Jeno held Renjun’s hands when he talked and when he went to sleep. He held Renjun in his arms when his guilt-ridden thoughts started to be too much for him. Jeno peppered his face with kisses and whispered to him reassuringly that none of this was his fault and that he shouldn’t cry about it anymore. 

At some point, Jeno allowed Renjun to climb into the hospital bed with him when he stayed overnight at the hospital. And then, Jeno would pull the broken boy close to him, tucking him into the safety of his arms, singing sweet lullabies to calm him down. 

As Renjun had been there for both him and Jaemin this whole time, Jeno wanted to be there for Renjun too. 

.

Jaemin finally woke up after two weeks. 

Jeno and Renjun had been talking quietly between themselves. Renjun was cutting and peeling apples for Jeno when Jaemin had suddenly called out for them.

His voice hoarse and scratchy from not talking in so long, he said, “Jeno? Renjun?”

At the sound of his voice, Renjun dropped the apple that he was cutting up almost instantly. “Jaemin?”

“Yeah, who else would I be?” Jaemin joked back weakly. 

Scrambling from his seat, Renjun rushed over to Jaemin in a heartbeat. Slipping his hand through Jaemin’s, Renjun cried out, “Oh my god. You’re finally awake.”

Jaemin squeezed back in reassurance, his chapped lips parting in a smile. “I mean, I did get shot… I deserve to sleep for a while, don’t I?”

“Shut up! You have no idea how worried we were when you continued to lay there motionless like that for weeks on end. And don’t even get me started on how much I cried the whole time.” 

“I’m sorry that I made you cry, baby.” Jaemin apologized, making Renjun blush at the sudden nickname. But then, the soft smile on Jaemin’s face dropped almost instantly as a sudden thought passed through his mind. Sitting up so abruptly that it startled Renjun, Jaemin searched the room frantically, “Wait, where’s Jeno? Is he okay? He was hurt too, right?”

Upon hearing his name, Jeno sighed from where he was, slowly making his way over to Jaemin’s bedside, saying, “Yes, I’m here and I’m fine. Calm down before you give yourself a premature heart attack, Nana.”

Despite Jeno’s slight teasing, Jaemin relaxed immediately as he spotted the boy. With Renjun urging him to lay back down, he finally settled. Wincing as he sat back, he asked, “What ended up happening after I was out?”

“I was taken away by security and was held up in a room until they were able to verify my identity. Once they confirmed that I was an employee of the company, I was off the hook. I searched for you guys the moment I could…” Renjun told him, his body shaking as he thought back to that dreadful night. The tears burned his eyes as his throat tightened up. “I’m so sorry, Jaemin… I held you two up and it almost cost you your life… I should’ve listened. If I wasn’t so stubborn, we wouldn’t be in this situation right now.” 

Jeno pulled the crying boy into his chest as he ran a soothing hand down his back. Voice soft, he whispered in Renjun’s hair. “Hey, it’s okay. We’re okay. Right?”

Jaemin nodded, his hands reaching out for Renjun. “We’re all here right now, and that’s all that matters.”

.

It only took Jeno a few days to fully recover, but it took Jaemin a little longer, but that was to be expected. By the fourth week that they’d been in the hospital, the doctor finally gave them all the okay to be discharged. They barely made it back home in time for the deadline to submit their programming assignment. 

Things returned back to normal for the most part. They all resumed their classes and lectures as if nothing had happened. The only difference was that Renjun had quit his intern job at the agency and was now working under Mark alongside Jeno and Jaemin. After hearing about Renjun’s talent and skills, Mark took him in without a second thought. It didn’t take long before they were known as the Golden Trio. Renjun, Jeno, and Jaemin were inseparable. 

“So, when are you free next?” Jaemin asked, a smile on his lips.

Scoffing, Renjun teased back. “I’m never free. I’m expensive.” 

At his witty reply, Jeno couldn’t help but burst into fits of laughter, hitting Jaemin repeatedly on his back as he did. Wheezing, Jeno said through his laughs, “Oh, man. That was a good one.” 

Rolling his eyes, Jaemin smartly reworded his question, asking instead, “How about next Monday after my last final?” 

“Yes, I’ll be available,” Renjun replied, eyes mischievous. “Why?”

“Well, I have to take my boyfriends out on an official first date, don’t I?” Jaemin commented. Then, throwing his arms around each of them, he pulled them in close as he said, “Got to properly announce to the world that I have two of the most amazing boyfriends in the world, you know?”


End file.
